Unification Church, byname of Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, religious movement founded in Pusan, South Korea, by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon in 1954. Known for its mass weddings, the church teaches a unique Christian theology. It has generated much controversy, and its members are commonly derided as “Moonies.”

Born in 1920, Moon was raised in the Presbyterian church, which eventually excommunicated him for heresy. As a teenager he had a vision in which he was charged with completing Jesus’ unfinished work. Accepting this call, he began to preach, faced persecution from the government, and founded the church.

According to Moon, the world was created from God’s inner nature, which is reflected in the “dual” expressions of life, Sung Sang (causal, masculine) and Hyung Sang (resultant, feminine). The purpose of creation, Moon believes, is to experience the joy of love. Adam and Eve, however, sinned by misusing love (fornicating) and failed to realize God’s purpose. In the wake of their failure, selfish love has dominated human existence, and God has sought to restore his original plan. God’s efforts at “restoration,” which require the intervention of a Messiah, have been continually thwarted. Although Jesus was able to create the conditions necessary for humanity’s spiritual salvation, he did not marry and thus, according to Moon, did not complete God’s plan.

The Unification Church identifies Moon as the Messiah who will implant God’s heart of love in his followers and complete Jesus’ works. Having married and raised the “ideal” family, Moon called on members of the church to follow his example and thereby participate in God’s plan for restoration. Followers believe that they can help establish God’s kingdom on Earth by accepting the blessing of their marriage in one of the mass wedding ceremonies for which the church has become well known.

In the late 1950s the church spread to the West and in the 1970s was identified as a “cult.” Parents protested their children’s membership in the group, which often damaged careers and family ties. They sought the help of deprogrammers and filed civil lawsuits. Controversy surrounding the church led to congressional hearings, and in 1982 Moon was convicted of tax evasion. His supporters, including many mainline church leaders, saw the trial as an example of government religious persecution.

Having survived this period of intense criticism, the Unification Church emerged in the 1990s with an expansive international program. The church has a presence in more than 100 countries, though exact membership figures are difficult to estimate. Its influence is extended by a variety of organizations that embody Moon’s ideals, such as the Professor’s World Peace Academy and the International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences. In 1994, on the 40th anniversary of the founding of the church, Moon announced the formation of the International Federation for World Peace, which assumed many of the functions formerly performed by the church.

Although the early 1990s was a period of relative stability for the Unification movement, problems arose for the church in Japan following the AUM Shinrikyo incident in 1995, when the country was gripped by anticult hysteria. The church was also hurt when Moon’s daughter-in-law, Nansook Hong, in 1998 wrote an exposé of life in the Moon family.

Learn More in these related articles:

...with more than 700,000 parishioners. It belongs to the Assemblies of God, the major Pentecostal denomination in the United States. The largest quasi-Christian new religion is Sun-Myung Moon’s Unification Church.

January 6, 1920 Kwangju Sangsa Ri, North P’yŏngan province, Korea [now in North Korea] September 3, 2012 Kap’yŏng, Kyŏnggi province, South Korea South Korean religious leader who in 1954 founded the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World...

form of church government developed by Swiss and Rhineland Reformers during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation and used with variations by Reformed and Presbyterian churches throughout the world. John Calvin believed that the system of church government used by him and his associates in...

Britannica Web sites

Members of the Unification church are often called "Moonies" because the organization was founded by the Korean evangelist Sun Myung Moon. The name, which is considered derisive and insulting by the group, has been used because many people consider the church to be a cult. The official name of the organization is the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity.